It was female attention all right but not the sort he would become famous for.

George Clooney was 11 years old and trying to drink a glass of milk. It was slopping everywhere, running in rivers down his face and dripping off his chin.

The girls were laughing, pointing and teasing him mercilessly. And the school bullies were rubbing their hands in glee, knowing they'd found a fresh victim in this vulnerable new boy with the paralysed face.

The young George Clooney had never heard of Bell's palsy before it struck him down just as he started high school. But it left him with indelible memories of what it is like to have women regard you with derision.

The debilitating medical condition has been likened to a stroke. Sufferers find themselves struggling to perform basic tasks.

Even today, Clooney - ironically voted Sexiest Man Alive in 1997 - winces as he remembers the most difficult year of his life, the one which earned him the nickname Frankenstein.

Just as he was becoming aware of the opposite sex, he found his face partly paralysed. His left eye closed and he couldn't eat or drink properly.